Category: Travel

Our last day in Delhi started with breakfast at a local hole in the wall. Often this is simply a phrase, however in India the phrase “hole in the wall” can often be taken literally. However, as with all the food we have had in India, breakfast was good.

This time we managed to connect with our taxi driver, Harry. We checked out of our lovely hotel and lugged all our bags through the back alleys to the taxi. First stop the spice market.

We took a rickshaw to the market, and while we no doubt paid too much, it was definitely worth having a guide to take us around.

From the spice market we went to the Red Fort.

The fort was impressive from the outside, but it is so big that inside it was just like any other part of the town.

After the fort was lunch, and by then we were tired and wanted to go home. Another hour of driving in the typical Indian traffic got us to the airport, followed by waiting, lining up, waiting, lining up, waiting, lining up, 14 hour flight, waiting …

A lot has happened since the last post, and I will update when I have time. A brief idea is that we took a taxi from Dharamsala to Amritsar. This is a major religious city for the Sikh community. We spent 2 nights in Hotel Fairway, even though we had booked Hotel Oyo rooms. It turned out that hotel Oyo rooms does not exist even though I was able to book it on hotels.com .

We visited the golden temple and it was quite a site. 100,000 people a day visiting it. As white people at the temple we were also a tourist attraction.

We left Amritsar this morning on the 5am train to Delhi. Once in Delhi we go a room at the Hotel Sterlington Inn, another high class spot, after which we walked to Connaught Place and checked things out.

Pat and I hike up to the Bagsu waterfall yesterday. It was touted as a place to go and relax, either st had waterfall or the temple. What they forgot to mention was that it is a very popular spot for Indian tourists. There were hundreds of people at both locations. Definitely not a spot to relax. I went back to Nick’s cafe to relax. However, watching the people was fun.

Later we went out for lasagna. As with everything, it was not quite what we were used to. The noodle was definitely lasagna noodle like, however there were 2 noodles, each plate size with filling in between. The apple pie and ice cream was good. The ice cream is like British ice cream, very rich and creamy. The pie filling was good, although the crust was a bit tough. They have definitely got the Cappacino down Pat though.

We arrived back at the hotel half expecting to see Joe waiting outside the door. However he was not there. He did show up about 9pm. He had climbed within 100m on the top of the peak, but was turned back due to ice conditions. He was a tired and hungry puppy.

This morning, Joe and I went to yoga while Pat stayed in bed. He has been in bed all day, not feeling too well. Joe and I hiked around the Dalai Lamas temple and then purchased a couple of beers.

We have now booked a hotel for Amristar in the Punjab region for tomorrow, and will be traveling there by taxi. It is a 4 hour drive for 4300 rupees ($86). Joe is presently off on a hike to St John in the wilderness church before supper. Pat is still in bed. I am enjoying a Thunderbird beer, brewed by Molson.

Today Joe could not stand the easy pace of life in McLeod Gurg, and he has gone off on a trek. He chose a 43km, 4 day trek that sounded very inviting until he decided that he wanted to do it in 2 days. I opted to stay and do day hikes instead.

Pat and I had a leisurely breakfast of fresh fruit and curds, along with a couple of coffees, at which point we embarked on a hike up to a man made lake, Dal lake. The trail up was along a main road, passing a major army base along the way.

We also found a nice old church, St John’s in the wilderness.

We also saw some friends along the way

The lake turned out to be most underwhelming, as it was more of a mud flat. I am assuming we are here in the dry season, and that it might be more impressive at other times.